SALT LAKE CITY (Court TV) — Taylor Frankie Paul, known for her appearance on the reality TV series “Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” scored a win in court on Monday as a judge said she can now see her young son without supervision.
Taylor Frankie Paul appears in court on April 30, 2026. (Bethany Baker/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
Paul and her ex, Dakota Mortensen, have each accused the other of domestic abuse; the two were ordered to stay at least 100 feet apart at a prior court hearing, which also saw Mortensen win full custody of the couple’s 2-year-old son. Paul, who previously had the majority of custody, was ordered to only see their toddler while supervised and each parent was ordered to undergo a psychological evaluation.
“I really cannot describe at all how difficult it’s been for both my client as well as [the child] to endure this separation over the last two and a half months,” Paul’s attorney, Eric Swinyard, said at Monday’s hearing. “She’s taking ownership. She’s taking actual concrete steps. Dakota has not even started the race because his assessment is so one-sided and does not include anything that could point to his culpability in the story, and he has plenty of it.”
Swinyard maintained that Mortensen’s evaluation was flawed and focused on Paul’s shortcomings rather than Mortensen’s own failures. “He simply was not open or honest in his assessment,” he said.
“I think we just have a situation where there’s an annoyance that his problems aren’t as heavy as the mom’s,” Mortensen’s attorney, Brent Salazar-Hall, said. “I think this court’s pretty clear from the mountain of evidence that my client’s a victim of domestic violence. That’s very clear.”
Dakota Mortensen appears court on April 30, 2026. (Bethany Baker/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
Swinyard complained to the court that Mortensen had been disparaging both Paul and witnesses in their case on social media, but demurred when questioned about his own client’s activity online. “She’s certainly talking about her journey and Dakota has interpreted that as being kind of indirect disparagement,” he said. “But she also feels that it’s an important part of her journey to document her healing, so to speak.”
“We keep hearing, ‘Oh, she’s accepted, she’s accepted all of her bad and it’s him that hasn’t,'” Salazar-Hall countered. “I don’t really hear acceptance. I hear, ‘He’s the abuser,’ and we see it online all the time.”
Judge Russell Minas warned both sides to be cautious with what they post on social media. “I certainly do think that both of them have a sense that they are the victims and not the perpetrators, and I get that,” Minas said.
Paul’s attorney had asked Minas to return to the couple’s original custody arrangement, which would have awarded his client approximately 70% of the time with the child. Minas said he favored “baby steps” in the case. Minas ordered that supervision be lifted and Paul be given one weekday and alternating weekends with the child.
The couple is due to return to court for a follow-up hearing on July 8.
